Ebrahim's quartet

I hope that Shah Ebrahim's despairing description of our ways of solving problems—“the usual hopeless solution—audit, training and education, more research” doesn't apply to the entire BMJ, because, as usual, this week's journal contains plenty of examples of this quartet. Ebrahim is writing about ageism in healthcare delivery, prompted by recent cases where doctors in Britain have written “do not resuscitate” in the notes of elderly patients without discussing this with the patient or relatives (p 1155). He suggests that such orders written without consultation …